HOW SHALL FORESTS BE TAXED' 



PART 1 Inequitable Taxation 

 Responsible for Much Fores! Destruction 



BY 



ALFRED GASKILL 



Forest Inspector, U. S. Forest Service. 



the situation. forests be so rated that they shall 



IT is generally admitted that taxation b , ear n0 m r ore than their fair share of 



1 in the United States is as faulty the cost of government, 



in principle and in practice as it can It is true that the virgin forests of 



well be. A well-known writer,* in dis- the South and West have not yet felt 



cussing the situation, says: "The the burden of overtaxation to any 



outcome of all this is a system which great extent, but the cut-over lands 



powerfully contributes to arrest and do feel it. In all the older States, 



hinder natural development, to cor- those wherein lumbering has greatly 



rupt society, and is without parallel enhanced timber values,, the tax 



in any country claiming to be civil- levied upon standing timber is often a 



ized." This approach applies with warning to the owner that he must cut 



especial force to the taxation of wood- it or run the risk of great loss, and 



lands, because the present practises when he has cut it the bare land is 



favor and encourage the untimely or taxed so_ high that he is forced to 



wasteful use of standing forests, dis- abandon it. 



courage the propagation of others, A few attempts to correct the evil, 



and tend to hasten the time when the through partial exemption, rebates, or 



country shall be forced to face a wood bounties, have been made. But, 



famine. though such measures may serve for 



The present paper, however, aims a beginning, the real need is for laws 



at no radical reorganization of the tax that, recognizing the public utility of 



system. It simply presents the situ- forests, adjust the necessary tax levies 



ation as it concerns the forest in- to the facts and conditions that govern 



terests, makes several suggestions that tree growth, and to the long periods of 



seem to be reasonable and not im- time that are required to produce 



practicable, and invites a full discus- timber. 



sion of the subject. The problem is In general, it is assumed that taxes 

 intricate, and perhaps on that account are imposed for the protection of per- 

 has failed to receive the attention it son and property as well as for public- 

 deserves, but the time has arived necessities, yet rarely is the obligation 

 when its consideration can be put off extended to woodlands. The forest 

 no longer. The welfare of every is not only allowed to go unguarded, 

 State requires that it be faced. No but everyone may tramp and camp 

 other question concerning the wood- therein and do almost what harm he 

 lands of the country, save that of fires, will. The common law and statutes 

 is so important, and we shall make relating to forest depredations are no- 

 little substantial progress in the effort toriously disregarded, and, though the 

 to induce private owners to maintain conditions in some parts of the country 

 their forests until the present condi- have been bettered of late years, 

 tion shall have been relieved, and the private forest and public suffers much 



a Paper read before The Society of American Foresters. 



*David A. Wells, "The Theory and Practice of Taxation," p. 395, 1900. 



